Lord, Teach Us To Pray

One of the misconceptions I had about prayer stemmed from an incomplete understanding of its purpose.  Another misconception had to do with the learning and intentionality required to achieve powerful and effective results.  (James 5:16)  If we think of prayer as “merely” talking to God, we tend to stop short of learning how to pray according to God’s Word.

I find it interesting that of all the things the disciples heard Jesus say and saw Him do, the one thing they asked Him to teach them was how to pray.  (Luke 11:1)  Why not something more awesome like feeding thousands with just a few loaves and fish, calming storms, or raising the dead? 

…why prayer?...

I just read a great book by Dr. Myles Munroe called “Understanding the Power and Purpose of Prayer”.  He suggested several reasons why the disciples wanted to learn how to pray above other things.

In terms of ministry, the disciples saw Jesus praying more than anything else.  The Bible tells us how Jesus was up early, often withdrawing to quiet places to pray.  It sounds like Jesus devoted hours each day to prayer.  His miracles, on the other hand, took mere minutes, seconds even.  Consider the ratio of time spent.  Consider the results.  What a lesson this is for our lives and ministries!

Often we think we’re too busy to pray, especially for hours a day.  Yikes!  But what if 1 hour with God could accomplish hours of work by knowing how to direct our efforts according to His will?  By avoiding all those things He didn’t have planned for us, including false starts and spinning wheels from striving in our own strength?  By having the right mindset of peace, joy, confidence, and courage?  Prayer is meant for us to talk to and hear from God – agreeing with His will, and receiving His wisdom and guidance for carrying it out.  Spending time in prayer actually saves time in the long run.

I’m sure the disciples also recognized how prayer developed intimacy between Jesus and the Father.  We know that Jesus always knew God’s will and did it.  (John 5:19-20)  How often do we spend hours talking about problems with only frustration and weariness as the end result, no solutions?  Societal issues.  The economy.  Healthcare.  The government.  Wayward teenagers.  Addiction.  Those are some pretty big problems.  Maybe we should do less talking and more praying because it’s our prayers that God needs to actually be able to operate in those situations and to use us as well.

We also see in Luke 11:1-4 that prayer doesn’t come automatically, it needs to be learned.  While Jesus was praying, the disciples weren’t, they were just watching and waiting.  They obviously saw something different about Jesus’ prayers and didn’t think they could pray that way on their own, even though they would have grown up praying in their synagogues.  So what did Jesus do?  He taught what we call The Lord’s Prayer to serve as a model.  Jesus taught us because He agrees we need to learn.

I’ve been learning a lot about prayer lately, including that there is a lot to learn – much more than I had originally thought.  But that shouldn’t intimidate us from communicating with our loving Father and Creator; rather it should excite and motivate us to press in deeper!